


In This Crimson Light

by AtLeastWeWontBeLonelyInHell



Category: The Mentalist
Genre: Angst, Dark, F/M, Tragedy, dark themes, dark&twisty, re-post from 2014
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-16
Updated: 2014-01-16
Packaged: 2019-10-11 04:21:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17439860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AtLeastWeWontBeLonelyInHell/pseuds/AtLeastWeWontBeLonelyInHell
Summary: „Red John says hi,“ is all she answers, before she pushes herself away from the wall.He hears her and yet he doesn’t. „Red John is dead.“„No,“ she laughs. „No, Patrick. You really thought McAllister was Red John?“





	In This Crimson Light

**Author's Note:**

> And a BIG special thank you goes to the wonderful clairebare for beta reading!

**In This Crimson Light**

**.**

**.**

Patrick Jane has always been a fraud. A con artist. Nothing more.

He was born into a family of con artists and raised to be one. Never had a real home, a real family. He’s never even been to high school.

When he’s seventeen he takes the blonde girl from the trailer closest to his own and runs away with her. He promises her a better life. A future.

Enough with that carny life they both hate so much.

But he can’t get a proper job and it doesn’t take long before Angela tells him she’s going to leave.

That’s when he goes back to doing what he does best. Being a con artist. Tricking people. Manipulating their emotions to get their money. And it works well.

Until his tricks anger the wrong man.

When he meets Teresa Lisbon in the CBI hallway she’s a light. A light that guides him out of the darkness Red John has left him in.

He’s driven by revenge. His hatred the only thing that keeps him alive.

When he finally chokes him to death in a park, he wants to end his own life too. He sits there in the grass, the gun against his temple. But he’s always been a selfish bastard. He loves his own life too much to end it and so he runs. Because after all, that’s what he does best.

He comes back for her two years later. She’s the light that guides him home. And of course she comes straight to him the second he asks.

Working with her is fun, even more than it was before because now she isn’t his boss anymore. And it doesn’t take long for him to realize she’s more than just a friend.

When she calls him in the middle of the night, sobbing and begging him to come over, he doesn’t think twice. He’s out of his trailer in seconds.

He’s in front of her apartment building ten minutes later. But something isn’t right. There is someone behind him and then there’s a slight pain in his arm. And then, everything turns black.

.

When he opens his eyes, he finds himself in a dimly lit room. Handcuffed to the chair he’s sitting on.

„Welcome back.“

He blinks. And spots Teresa leaning against the bare wall a few steps away from him. Wearing a tight black outfit he’s never seen her in, her dark curls falling loosely around her face. It’s the woman he knows so well and yet she’s someone else.

„Where are we?“ he asks her. Blinking. Trying to remember what happened.

„Doesn’t matter,“ she tells him.

He blinks again, looking up at her.

„I don’t understand, Teresa. What happened? You called me…“ He tries hard to remember, but everything’s a blur. „You said something happened, you were crying…“

„I tricked you,“ she tells him. A bored expression on her flawless face. An expression you see on spoiled teenage girls, an expression he’s never seen on her.

„I still don’t understand.“

For a second she is still. A cruel smile on her face as she meets his eyes for the first time that night.

„Red John says hi,“ is all she answers, before she pushes herself away from the wall.

He hears her, but he doesn’t.

„Red John is dead.“

„No,“ she laughs. „No, Patrick. You really thought McAllister was Red John?“

Patrick is sure he’s dreaming. Hallucinating. This can’t be real. He watches her come closer, one step at a time. Her eyes never leave his face.

„He faked his death in your guest house.“

„Who?“

„You really don’t know?“ She looks surprised. And he truly doesn’t. He has no idea who she’s talking about.

„Ray,“ she tells him. Her emerald green eyes sparkle in the light. „Ray Haffner.“

He stares at her for a long time. Trying to understand what she just said. But it doesn’t make sense. It couldn’t be true. This couldn’t be happening. He killed Red John.

He ended this nightmare years ago. Red John is dead, as well as Ray Haffner. He’s spent more than twelve years with her, she couldn’t-

„But you…you…“ he stammers, trying hard to catch his breath.

„I was his secret weapon,“ she tells him proudly. And Patrick feels like he’s about to throw up.

“ I know you, Teresa,“ he whispers. Slowly shakes his head. „This isn’t true.“

„You don’t know anything about me, Patrick.“

He shakes his head again.

„I know you. You would never…“

„You know me?“ she interrupts him angrily. „What the hell do you think you know about me?“ She starts to laugh.

„Did you know I almost quit school when I was fifteen because I needed to get a fulltime job so I could keep paying the bills? When my mother died my life went straight to hell, Patrick. We were living in Chicago, after her death we had to move to the South Side. My life was a freaking mess. If it hadn’t been for Ray I would never have gotten out of there alive.“

Her words hit him like ice cold water. She’s right. He doesn’t know anything. He never bothered asking.

„You grew up with him, didn’t you?“

She smiles again, her eyes distant. „I did,“ she whispers. „And he saved my life.“

„So, you owe him.“

„No Patrick, I love him.“

It’s the first time in his life that he feels the desire to hurt a woman. And if she hadn’t handcuffed him to the god damned chair he’d slap her.

„You love the man who killed my wife and daughter?“ he whispers, disbelieving.

She makes a step forward, anger flashing over her beautiful face.

„Your daughter wasn’t even supposed to be there,“ she spits. „Do you remember that weekend, Patrick? You should have been in Paris with her. She shouldn’t have been in that house.“

He’s startled. How did she know that? She couldn’t have known that. He cancelled their trip last minute. He never told anyone. Not even Sophie.

„You can’t know that,“ he whispers out loud as his body starts to tremble.

Teresa sighs. „No, but Ray did. He was there that night too, remember?“

He watches her come closer. Until she bends to her knees in front of him. A knife in her right hand. A knife he hasn’t noticed before and his blood runs cold.

This isn’t the woman he spent a decade with. She couldn’t have tricked him like this. She isn’t a killer. She isn’t heartless. She isn’t-

„He hypnotized you, didn’t he?“

She looks up at him, her green eyes finding his blue ones. And for one moment she’s back and he knows it’s true. Knows he can’t stop her. Knows he won’t be able to keep her from doing what she’s been told to do.

„Why didn’t he come to kill me himself?“ he can’t help but ask, looking at her one last time. There’s a smile on her face when she leans forward, the cold blade kissing his skin softly.

„A final gift for you,“ she whispers as her bloody red lips brush over his.

And he could swear he sees her emerald green eyes turn crimson.

**.**

**.**


End file.
